Brian Austin

Yeah, I read the grille badge a little more closely after posting. It reads "Anglia."

This used car dealer/junk yard in Oxford, MA has had some interesting things for sale on the occasions I happened to pass by. This '64 Austin was seen a couple of weeks ago or so. I'll bet it was driven by a little old lady, only on Sundays....

Warren, MA, yesterday. What drew me to this site initially was the unusual truss bridge, and revisited the area to take some pictures of an old stone railroad bridge down the river, but trees screened that one from view. While I was there this time around I saw no one around and got some pictures of the Buick. Last time I was here, just a couple of weeks ago or so, it was still Autumnal in feel. Yesterday it was very wintry. Cold.

Not sure what was going on here, but these were parked around the corner from the steam roller. I actually saw these a couple of weeks ago and had to come back for a visit yesterday.

Ware, MA. This has been parked here a long time.

Wheels and tires look nice.

The Polar Lights version had smoked (dark) side and rear windows. It has been my impression that it is the old AMT version that's being reissued. I think it has been stated that a straight ambulance version will be issued later. I'd be curious to see what the present reissue will look like.

Thank goodness I wasn't familiar with Project X and therefore don't have an attachment to it nor do I have preconceived notions regarding what it should be. ? Also, thankfully I'm open-minded enough to find all types of motive power of interest. Technology is cool. The history of technology is cool. Why limit oneself? Why does just about every thread involving electric vehicles turn into a rant against their existence? Enough already.

Today I toured around the middle of my state and saw several old cars either on the road or parked. I saw a clean Chevette parked. I briefly considered turning around for a picture but kept going. Elsewhere I saw a tiny Japanese pickup (Kei car), with a procession of cars backed up behind it, drivers presumably grumbling about it being allowed on a busy road.

There are quite a few diecast models available in 1:35 scale, or thereabouts. I have a Mercedes sedan made by NZG (known for their diecast promo models of construction equipment) in this scale, and First Gear offers a wide array of trucks in 1:34. Corgi had a range of cars in 1:36. Many classic Hess truck promos also seem to be in the vicinity of this size. There are also other bus models in 1:35. There's at least one Russian GAZ-AA bus kit, by a military model company. A 1:24 Greyhound model kit would be nice, but how much would it cost? People are getting grumpy regarding the cost of automotive kits these days. I think a bus in this scale would be very expensive. Here's an interesting look at Greyhound during the WWII era. http://www.americainwwii.com/galleries/greyhound-on-the-road-through-wwii-and-beyond/ Lastly here's a nice ad from 1943.

You too can earn a small fortune in model building. First start with a large fortune. :-) (Ancient joke, paraphrased). It is possible to make money in the creative arts, but one's time is indeed worth something.

I said LEGO builds were models, I never said they were supposed to be finely detailed or exact scale. I had just visited the LEGO website, where they mentioned the scale, so I just threw that in my post, FWIW. In the end it doesn't matter. People are building, and a little public exposure can only be a good thing.

It's strange they didn't use Monogram's Trans Am kit with a different nose. Monogram's 1:8 kits show up in an amazing array of movies as miniature effects props, such as the tunnel scene in Men In Black. It's a pity Monogram didn't issue a 1:8 scale school bus. :-)

You're missing the point of LEGO. :-) It's not easy to design a model using the LEGO brick geometry. Many years ago I passed up a nifty book on various models built in the style seen at the LEGO Land parks. You have to get creative to get curvy contours with bricks. :-) Yes, LEGO sets are models. For example, the Titanic is a model of the real thing, said to be 1:200 scale.

There's a neat article on the Hemmings blog regarding stunt cars similar to that one. Those were often operated by organizations such as the American Legion and the Shriners in parade use. https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2015/09/01/stuntin-in-my-two-four-my-1924-ford-model-t-that-is

The problem is, some of the comments on this board have come across as rather dismissive and disrespectful.

My point was that quote is often misquoted, and I was just gently correcting it. That's all. I wasn't expecting this to become a major point of discussion. :-)

The responses that say "Zzzzzzzzzz" or similar are the worst.

It is the LOVE of money that is said to be the root of evil. :-)

I seem to recall several diecast manufacturers (along with the model railroad segment) suffered some factory closures in the first half of the 2010s. They were caught off guard. Some managed to hold on to their tooling, while others were not so lucky. Also the cost of zinc had been on the rise as well. I recall forums discussing some manufacturers moving away from diecast to other materials for models. Parts of an article by New York Times from 2014: The decision by the Danbury Mint last month to stop selling die-cast model cars was symptomatic of a more serious shrinkage in a market where the vehicles are already pretty small. The Connecticut company, which still produces jewelry and collectible plaques and figurines, left the market when its last die-cast car factory in China closed down; another of its Chinese factories closed two years earlier. (...) Mr. Fothergill, who said that he has been selling collectible die-cast cars to individuals and stores for 24 years, pointed out that much of the rollback happened during the years of economic downturn. “A lot of the manufacturers did not adjust their production runs,” he said. “They would still make 5,000 pieces. Now, you have production runs as low as 500 pieces. Nobody wants excess stock nowadays.” Most die-cast models are made in China, Mr. Fothergill said, where one factory can produce cars for a number of brands, adjusting the levels of quality and detail to meet the seller’s desired price points. But when one of these factories runs into financial difficulties and cannot pay its workers, he said, the Chinese government will step in and shut it down. “We’ve seen one factory in the last six months that was a mainstay for 20 years, and they ran into some problems and now they’re gone,” Mr. Fothergill said. Part of this can be traced to the upward pressure on wages in Chinese factories. The added labor costs, as well as a jump in the cost of materials, have raised prices on larger die-cast collectibles by 30 to 35 percent in the last two years, he said. Zinc, the metal used for the bodies, has risen in price significantly over the last five years. The Danbury Mint cited an increase in prices, to $250 from $150, in its announcement, according to a collector-car website, Hemmings Daily. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/automobiles/collectibles/a-scaleback-in-die-cast-cars.html

"Mag wheel" is fewer syllables than "aluminum alloy wheel". :-)

Nomads are quite different from standard wagons or deliveries.

You might recognize some large scale kits used in the production of this Gumby episode:

Home Improvement.